A front panel of a motor vehicle is a structural component capable of integrating various equipments of the vehicle such as headlamps, flashing indicators, horn, heat exchanger, motorized fan unit or complete cooling unit, etc. The front panel, thus provided with its equipments, constitutes a unit module prepared and delivered by the equipment supplier in order to be fitted on the vehicle by the manufacturer.
The unit module is mounted on lateral structural components of the vehicle, such as the side members or the wings, and then the frontal shield or bumper, for example, is fitted onto the module.
In the technique of the prior art, heat exchangers are disposed between the front panel and the bumper beam. Furthermore, these heat exchangers are located a few centimeters behind the bumper beam for reasons of efficiency and noise and, finally, in order they are not damaged in the event of a frontal collision. This technique has a major disadvantage of overall dimensions. Furthermore, these heat exchangers mostly consist of cores that are flat and of large area. Furthermore, they cannot easily be placed elsewhere.